Hump Day Treat, Bass Hero Edition

Three years ago today, my bff and I rushed down to New York to see local indie darlings Rainer Maria give their penultimate performance. It's hard to believe that so much time has passed, especially because I still listen to R|M on a pretty regular basis.

I hadn't planned on going; they were my favorites but I was kind of miffed over their last album, which just wasn't very good compared to their previous work. I ended up at the show because of a so-so boyfriend's last-minute cancellation, a spare ticket, and lucky timing.

As strangely as it all came about, I'm glad I went. The show reminded me of why I fell in love with the band, and with bass player and vocalist Caithlin De Marrais. A terribly undersung musician and songwriter, Caithlin's work changed the way I play and understand bass, and so I salute her and R|M onthis hump day.

Hump Day Treat, Corin Tucker Orgy Edition

When Corin Tucker's birthday came and went last week, it reminded me of something I'd listened to early this year. Back in January, I heard a college radio dj's broadcast of what she called the Corin Tucker Orgy. For four hours, homegirl played songs and even full records put out by all of CT's bands, and even aired a half hour phone interview she'd done earlier in the week with the lady of the evening! It was kind of a dream come true for a rabid Corin-lover like myself. So as a sort of belated-birthday shout, here's my attempt to spread the love. Enjoy the many phases of Corin's career on this cold, clear hump day!

with Heavens To Betsy:


with Sleater-Kinney:


with Cadallaca:


On her own!


BONUS JONAS! Watch some interviews Corin taped for Rock N Roll Mamas
and the Riot Grrrl Documentary.

Hump Day Treat, Guitar Geek Nostalgia edition

I finally got around to googling Elle magazine's recent 12 Greatest Female Electric Guitarists list, but I wound up spending more time on reading the comments posted by other readers than on the list itself. The following from Drowned in Sound caught my attention:

In terms of cheesy rock soloage, it's gotta be Louise Post from Veruca Salt. She's also dead pretty.

Oh wow, what about Louise Post? I wondered to myself. I don't think about her often, even though Veruca Salt was one of my favorite bands before Nina Gordon's departure. This comment made me realize though that Post was my first real guitar heroine. I devoured articles about her, and I got my first guitar pedal -- the now discontinued Boss FZ-2 Hyper Fuzz pedal -- because I read in a guitar magazine that Post used it on a song called "Shutterbug".


Here's another geeky first: the first guitar solo I ever learned was the face-melter at the end of "Shutterbug". And I learned it from watching Veruca Salt's performance of the song on Saturday Night Live. (In the live broadcast, Post made a mistake, and yeah, I learned the mistake even.) Solo's aren't the be all and end all that some (read: dude) guitarists make them out to be, but it was definitely an important step in my development as a musician. No matter what rumors and mean-spirited critiques may abound about Post now, I owe her. So in her honor, I present "Shutterbug" as today's hump day treat. Enjoy!





***EDIT*** I just found the original SNL performance I learned the solo from, and it's just like I remember it, with Louise and Nina's weird outfits that I thought were awesome when I was in middle school, and Louise's bad ass ice blue eye shadow! Looking at it with adult eyes, the performance isn't even that great, but that's beside the point. BEST DAY OF MY LIFE. (watch the SNL performance HERE.)

Hump Day Treat, Pioneer Band Double Header

Um. Did you know that Sonic Youth put out a new record yesterday?



Yeah, neither did I. (It's called The Eternal, by the way.) But then, Sonic Youth's ability to be a cultural institution and still be totally underground, low key and genuinely cool is a major part of their appeal.

Whether you're familiar with the band's long and accomplished discography or not, it's almost impossible to not know about Kim Gordon, their one-time bass player, current guitarist, and sometimes vocalist. Gordon's art school cool attitude, pro-woman ideas, and New York City street punk style have been influencing punk artists and musicians since the '80s, just as Sonic Youth has been defining and re-defining the genre known as 'art punk' for almost 30 years now.

Over at AfterEllen, Trish Bendix writes that new track "Sacred Trickster" is "infectious" and arguably one of the band's "best tracks ever". Below is a performance of the new song from last month, along with a performance of "Antenna". So give it a spin (...or a stream?) and celebrate a long and distinguished career, instead of thinking about being stuck at work for at least 4 more hours.

Viva Voce at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, 6/04/09

(above: Anita Robinson, mid-solo)

I wrote recently in this blog that Anita Robinson is an unsung guitar heroine, and I've never been so sure of it as I was last week while watching her perform with Viva Voce in Brooklyn. Robinson is a gifted and unself-conscious lead guitarist who likes psychedelic sounds and the effects pedals needed to produce them, but who never overdoes it or hides behind her effects. And tracks from Viva Voce's new album, Rose City, showcase Robinson's skill at playing the kind of simple, elegant, keening and bending guitar lines that would make "Wonderful Tonight"-era Eric Clapton both jealous and ashamed at his clumsiness.

But Viva Voce is far more than Anita and her guitar. The band began as a duo, a creative partnership between Anita and husband Kevin Robinson, who is the kind of fearless performer capable of playing the guitar and drums at the same time without seeming obnoxious. The chemistry between Anita and Kevin seems to be the key to their previous records. In between the many guitar overdubs and oohing and aahing back up vocals and occasional old-school style funk bass line, they produce something on Lovers, Lead the Way!, The Heat Can Melt Your Brain, and Get Yr Blood Sucked Out so fun, so spontaneous, so vibrant, that you can't imagine how they could recreate it live. But recreate it live they did, and as a duo.

Leave it to the Robinsons to risk this and challenge themselves by deciding to quit their duohood, quite possibly for good. Viva Voce now includes Corinna Repp on guitar, drums, and theremin (yes, theremin!) and Evan Railton on drums and keyboard. Version 2.0 of Viva Voce is on the road in support of the new album, but you wouldn't know the recent additions were recent from hearing them play. The band played a tight, comfortable, set that was suffused with their own brand of slightly-bluesy, uninhibited, relaxed Portland indie cool. Their new songs are surprisingly somber, some moving at dirge-like tempos, with lyrics about exhaustion, homesickness, loss and futility. Where older Viva Voce sounds bright, hot, and radiates like a heat wave, Rose City is rainy, dark, moody, and lush, like its namesake.

above: Corinna Repp, l., and Anita Robinson, r.

But the band keeps their show light and energetic. In version 2.0 of Viva Voce, Kevin Robinson plays bass, and his warm, lively presence up front is felt, and provides a nice counterpoint to Anita's focused, intense guitar playing. [Sidenote: One can't help but notice this interesting role reversal -- here, a woman plays guitar, while a guy plays bass, which has long been unfairly pegged as an 'easy' instrument that girls play.] Corinna Repp helps to fill out the band's sound with rhythm guitar, percussion, drums, and yes, theremin solos. Evan Railton is a fine drummer, but I think his real contribution to this show was as a keyboardist -- new piano-driven tracks like "Midnight Sun", "The Slow Fade", and "Flora" wouldn't have worked without the sound of a brooding, forceful, "Let It Be" type keys.

The new Viva Voce only benefits from its new bandmembers. The group and its previous strengths -- its versatility, its familiarity with classic rock, its ability to take older sounds and make them seem new, -- are all enhanced. The same goes for the maintenance of the group's gender ratio: since their inception, Viva Voce has been proving, without ever discussing any sort of politics, that indie rock doesn't have to be dominated by whiny guys with acoustic guitars, and that rock in general doesn't need to be based on machismo. Viva Voce 2.0 functions seamlessly and shows that it is possible for men and women to get together and play music without the sort of off-putting sexist posturing and divisive rhetoric that seems to be audible in almost every style of popular music these days.

Above: Anita, Evan Railton, and Kevin Robinson

Hump Day Treat, Summer kickoff edition

One of my biggest complaints about grad school is that you get so wrapped up in it that you can't keep up with current events. And of course, for me 'current events' means what records are coming out and when. So imagine my surprise when I found out during my first week of summer break that one of my favorite musicians of all time put a new record out just yesterday! That's right folks: it's time to give it up for Anita Robinson, underrated guitar hero of Viva Voce:



So in celebration of the release of Rose City, and first single/video "Octavio", I present what I believe is the first video from VV, "Alive With Pleasure". A true summer jam with a great melody and fantastic lead guitar part, there's no better introduction to these guys and their garage-y, soulful, just slightly psychedelic sound. There's also no better introduction to Anita's skills, which are nothing short of inspiring.



Great song, good beat, positive vibe, and hot guitarist = awesome way to start a vacation.